NBC Sports Chief Dick Ebersol Resigns

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Dick Ebersol, a giant in the history of televised sports and entertainment, resigned from his position as the head of NBC Sports on Thursday.

Ebersol had been the face of NBC Sports since 1989, bringing all four major American pro sports to the network at times over the years. In the past decade, his division increasingly focused upon standout sporting events such as Sunday Night Football, The Triple Crown, Notre Dame football, and the NHL Winter Classic.

The biggest of these events was the Olympics, the singular global event that Ebersol devoted much of his career to attaining the rights to and continually refining coverage of.

"What I have enjoyed most is working so closely with so many truly outstanding and incredibly talented people over decades of producing some of the greatest events in the world," Ebersol said in a statement released by NBC.

Mark Lazarus, president of the NBC Sports Cable Group, will replace Ebersol.

Ebersol's resignation - which was first reported by the New York Times and the Associated Press - comes months after Comcast's takeover of NBC Universal.

Published at 12:55 PM EDT on May 19, 2011 | Updated at 3:09 PM EDT on May 19, 2011